North Korea Says Kim Urges Crackdown on ‘Rebellious Elements’

Ri Sol Ju was the unidentified woman seen in a number of recent public appearances on state television, closely flanking North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency. Source: KNS/AFP/Getty Images

Kim delivered the message to a national meeting of chiefs
of social security units and other security personnel yesterday,
KCNA reported today.

Security forces should find rebellious people who are
maneuvering behind the scenes “to destroy our unity,” and
those waiting to act, and “mercilessly crush all of them,”
KCNA cited Kim as saying. The report didn’t give any details of
such activities.

Kim became head of the totalitarian state in December,
following the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, who ruled the
secretive nation from 1994 to 2011. He took the country’s top
rank of marshal in July, securing his power as leader of the
impoverished nation’s 1.2 million-strong armed forces. The
promotion came days after Kim fired veteran army chief Ri Yong
Ho, in the biggest publicly revealed power shift since his
succession.

Last month, Kim called for vigilance by the security
ministry to protect the sovereignty of the nation, according to
a KCNA report issued on the same day as the South Korean Defense
Ministry said a soldier defected to the South after shooting two
officers.

Yesterday’s security meeting was held in the capital,
Pyongyang, for the first time in 13 years, and was the first
since Kim became chairman of the National Defense Commission,
South Korea’s Yonhap News reported today.